


Misunderstanding

by myshining



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Fluff, Friendship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-23
Updated: 2013-05-23
Packaged: 2017-12-12 16:58:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/813880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myshining/pseuds/myshining
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lovino stops by Antonio’s house on an off night.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Misunderstanding

            Antonio was what one would call a country bumpkin. He had preferred solitude for as long as Lovino could remember. It had been a good year or two since he’d spoke to him, and for once, he actually meant speaking to him and not just saying hello and discussing the weather and the economy and maybe politics before breaking away from each other like ice skaters performing a never-ending routine. Dare he say, he actually wanted to talk to him. After the Civil War, he was practically a bomb ready to explode. However, his hold on his temper rarely faltered. Antonio was in charge of his emotions and seemed eager to please as he always had been, only this time, to everyone and not just to who mattered.

            Six hours later across a dangerous highway and getting lost through gravel road after gravel road, Lovino finally came across Antonio’s house in the sticks. It needed a fresh coat of paint on literally everything, and it was due for some much-needed repairs on the steps but other than anything else, the huge house was in a good state for how he treated them when he didn’t use them. This estate was from the 1700’s and lacked indoor plumbing until the 1920’s and electricity until 1949. He remembered it well, he helped install a few light switches and poor Antonio was shaking in his boots about him leaving before his boss showed up and screamed at both of them. He pitied the rulers of that era and he pitied the rulers of now. Some things never changed, but at least he could take a step outside without hearing outcries of the same man’s last name like bird song.

            He had tried calling Antonio before he arrived, (he wasn’t a rude man, but he didn’t appreciate being screened) but the useless lout either didn’t answer, didn’t have it with him, or lost it. He came anyway, resolute on talking with Antonio about something more than just the weather. He rang the doorbell, hoping to God nine-o-clock wasn’t bedtime for the Spaniard because he might have to kill him on the spot. He waited a good thirty seconds, his ear trained behind the chipping white door with the screen covering and rang again, knocking three times. Lovino Vargas could pick a lock. He wasn’t afraid to. He could kick down a door, which he was afraid of just the tiniest bit. His shoes were new and he wasn’t going to sacrifice them to a simple chat with a soon-to-be-aggravated Antonio. “Open up, buttercup.” He hollered, tapping the door a few more times before being interrupted by a horrible scream from a man in the horizon.

            A laugh followed the scream, sounding exactly like Antonio when he was pleased or amused. He would admit, for a long minute he regretted ever coming to this house of horrors simply to speak to Antonio and catch up after a long time. He never realized how twisted the bastard had become and returned any guilt felt when he ditched him to join up with Feliciano to become big kids and run their own nation together. Footsteps coming closer. Lovino felt a cold sweat break out on his neck and he rushed to pick up his suitcase to make a quick retreat home before he ended up like the poor soul in the distance.

            He had just slung his bag over his shoulder when he made a head on collision with something. A pole? No, something smelly and wet. He fell on his rump, tripping and fumbling mid-fall with his suitcase and looking up with a wild, terrified gasp to see Antonio himself, skinnier than when he last saw him and covered in wet blood all across his arms and his white shirt. Lovino will admit he did scream; part from running into a blood-covered man, part knowing he was next, and another from the surprise of simply running into someone. “Don’t touch me, you lunatic! Get away!”

            “Lovino?” Antonio asked, sounding befuddled and almost frightened. “What are you doing here?”

            Given that he didn’t cover his mouth or tackle him into not running away, Lovino relaxed a little, his heart still thumping and beating out of his chest. “W-Why are you covered in blood?”

            The security light flicked on overhead from all the movement and buzzed, moths lazily weaving in and out of its beams. Antonio’s naïve expression was suddenly very clear as well as the sweat and blood dripping off his chin. “Oh! Oh, well, this is not a good first impression after… ah…” He was avoiding the question. “Wait here a moment, I’ll explain the mess.” Antonio picked up the pail and a crude brush. He unlocked the door, stepping out of his muddy boots before walking in, and disappeared into the house. Lovino paused, looking at his car and then to his suitcase. He took the chance of storming in and loudly throwing his bag in, landing by the couch in the living room that was apparently still in good enough shape from the 1810’s to be keeping around. “You’re staying?” He asked, turning around from the kitchen sink where he was filling up the metal pail with soap and water. Obviously surprised.

            “Yeah, and I called you saying I was but you decided not to answer.” Lovino retorted, rubbing off the smeared blood from his arms Antonio had gotten on him. “You’re obviously… killing something back there.”

            Antonio’s head clicked a little later than anyone else’s would, but that was okay. He was old and he had been through a lot. However, that didn’t mean butchering people in the barn behind the tomato fields with the cattle and goats. His laugh filled the room and he shook his head, looking up into the air and muttering a small ‘oh, Allah’, before tugging his full pail of warm water and brush. “Come with me.” He told him, opening the ancient fridge and handing Lovino a plastic bag of various foods and liquids. “I did not kill anyone, Lovino, in fact, I did quite the opposite.”

            The opposite? Antonio raised someone from the dead. An old dog, maybe. His grandfather? He hoped not. He followed Antonio reluctantly and blamed the uneven terrain when he would look behind and tell him to hurry up. “What do you mean the opposite?”

            His laugh filled the air again as he squinted in the bright light of the bluish security lamps outside the brown barn housing his farm animals. “Well, you know.”

            Lovino looked around the corner, expecting to see some zombie carcass or perhaps a chained up rival of his, but instead seeing his black and white splotched dairy cow on her side, breathing heavily and puffing out white clouds of heat in the early spring air. Beside her, a whimpering little all-black calf speckled with hay from the floor. “You helped a cow give birth?”

            “Yeah!” He nodded, setting his pail down next to the calf and scrubbing off the film stuck on its body from the birthing process. “The mom’s name is Abra. This one’s going to be Luisa. She had a baby girl.” He explained, halting in the process of cleaning the calf when Abra struggled to stand back up. She was tired from her first birth and she needed rest, Antonio added, easing her back down and moving Luisa closer to her mother so she could help clean her up.

            “I thought you snapped, Antonio.” Lovino huffed, and Antonio shook his head with a stupid grin, stripping himself of his dirtied shirt and wiping his forehead with it before tossing it aside. Very neat of him, he thought. “What’s the bag for?”

            “Have you ever in your life fed a baby calf?” Antonio asked, motioning for him to open the bag while he affectionately tutted at the baby cow licking at his fingers whenever he got close. “Maybe you can help. She’s hungry and she keeps sucking my fingers thinking I have milk.”

            Lovino moved over and patted Abra on the head, stroking her strong neck and telling her that she did a good job and that they would take care of baby Luisa, now. “Births are one of the things that never are any less emotional watching.”

            “I cried like a baby.” Antonio nodded in agreement, turning to his friend and laughing again, frightening the calf and alerting the mother. “She did come spilling out into my lap and started kicking everywhere. I’m sorry I had to scare you like that with all the blood.”

            “Maybe next time you’ll answer your phone.” Lovino replied, smirking and elbowing Antonio in the side. “And maybe next time, I won’t have to invite myself over.”


End file.
